Utopia

"Not sure if that's a compliment or not," Luke replied sheepishly, suddenly aware that his room was in a bit of a state and was probably in apalling condition for receiving guests. That said, Kira was probably the most understanding guest that he could hope to receive, and he was sure that she wouldn' judge him too badly on his state. "Uh, I gave myself a quick one, um... Actually that might have been a couple of months ago... Does it show that much?"

Kira paused for a moment in thought, before nodding. "Yeah, it's a bit long," she said, before shrugging and winking at Luke. "Doesn't mean you look any less attractive, though," she teased, before giggling a bit to herself. She'd forgotten how nice it was to just spend time with him.

"You're just saying that, you silver-tongued charmer you," Luke laughed, rocking back in his chair as he did, smiling at his old girlfriend happily. It had been ages since he had talked to Kira, which meant that it had been a long time since he'd felt as comfortable with anyone, since Kira knew him better than anyone. "I should probably get it cut, eh...? You needn't worry, you're looking as beautiful as ever."

Kira blushed a little, rubbing her cheek. "Flattery will get you nowhere," she scolded jokingly. Compliments were a nice thing to get, though, especially from Luke. He was good at making her feel happy with herself. "You want me to help you cut it?" she asked. "While I'm here, minds as well help out a little..."

"I'd really appreciate that, actually, I'd probably make an absolute balls of it," Luke replied gratefully, the admission coming sheepishly, but he trusted Kira implicitly. It wasn't like he wanted anything special, he just wanted a shorter mop. "Though you've already brightened my day enough to have made it worth it. I dunno what to say about my hair. Like this but... less so."

Kira stood up, stretching a bit, and looking around. Scissors, scissors, scissors. Where could the scissors possibly be? She glanced back down at Luke, laughing a little. "Good, because I don't think I could actually do anything else," she said, looking around again. After a moment, she spoke up again, a bit sheepishly. "Uh, where are your scissors?" Hopefully he actually owned scissors, and she didn't have to worry about taking a knife to his head or something.

"Uh, they're probably somewhere on the draining board beside my sink. They probably need to be washed, if I remember rightly," Luke replied embarrassedly, standing up from the couch, and walking over to the kitchen, hoping it wasn't too bad. And to be fair, it didn't look too bad. The dishwasher needed taking care of, but that was closed and appeared fine. The sink and table were clear, and there wasn't much in the bin but a few cans and pill containers. "Ah yeah, there they are."

Kira followed Luke into the kitchen, picking up the scissors and turning on the water and running the scissors under them. "So...you were talking to Nathan today? Is he okay?" she asked, drying them off on a towel. She was curious as to whether or not he was still alright. She kind of hoped that he wasn't letting darkness control him anymore, though she doubted he would have given it up.

"Yeah, he seemed to be alright. A lot more in-control than the last time we met... Actually I guess that wouldn't be hard, last time we met he stabbed me. But yeah, I think he's got control of darkness. Don't get me wrong, he seems to have got more arrogant, and I guess he didn't exactly hold back with the violence earlier," Luke mused, scratching his chin, thinking on his old team-mate. He liked the guy, but he did have a lot of problems with him.

"That's good," Kira mused, glad she didn't have to worry about Nathan. "Didn't want to have to run off with Jason, this is better than the wasteland..." She glanced around, grabbing a wooden chair and pulling it into the middle of the room. "Alright, sit down."

"Sorry again about earlier, by the way," Luke replied, obeying and sitting down. He knew it was probably implicit, but he felt that she probably deserved it, and he only felt more guilty about it faced with her. Still, he didn't want to stick on the subject in case he ruined the mood of the day. "It's a pretty odd day. After all this time, I see my old two team-mates in the same day."

Kira smiled slightly as she started to cut Luke's hair. "I forgive you," she said gently. "And it is a pretty odd day, I guess," she began, biting her tongue about the police station. She didn't really want to do anything to make Luke mistrust her.

"I suppose you three are looking for trouble, yes?" A voice called down from the allyway. The voice belonged to Zackary. Of course, when he noticed the three following that woman, he just assumed.

Better to be safe, than hear about a raping the next day that he could have stopped.

Is that...Zackary...? Rebecca thought to herself, wondering if he was indeed the person following her.

Nathan frowned slightly to himself, Zackary's arrival wasn't helpful. When it came to Acer contestants they all seemed to have a feel for each others flow, and regardless of whether Nathan was suppressing his own distinct signature Zackary would probably feel something.

With a smirk he shape shifted into the appearance that was on so many wanted posters around the city and jumped down from the rooftop he was on. He landed between the woman and the three men with a casual ease. If Zackary new this woman, the best way to find out her identity was to act like he was on the side of the Acer contestants. Which he was in a distant love hate way.

"Don't answer his question, it was rhetorical," he said, "you've found trouble."

"Epp..." Rebecca moved back towards the wall. Was this Nathan, the person who was the most wanted person in Utopia. And he was standing in front of her.
...

Defending her...? Or, was he in for something else. Then again, Zackary was rigth there...but, was he even strong enough to take on Nathan?

Though he was familiar. How she knew him...she wouldn't even venture a guess.
"Tch. Looks like I somehow stumbled upon who I was searching for," Zackary said, glancing at Nathan briefly before back at the three. "So, do you punks want to take the challenge, or are you going to run away?"

Zackary knows him?

"But a nice one," Luke affirmed, trying to keep still so he didn't get cut. He laid his hands on his knees, a tiny harmless flame dancing idly in between his fingertips as he did, an almost subconscious habit that he had picked up through the years from constant fear of having his Flow suppressed. He extinguished it quickly. "Great to see you guys again."

Kira gave a weak smile, glad Luke couldn't see the expression on her face since she was behind him. While seeing Luke had been wonderful, and knowing Nathan was alright was good as well, everything else about this day had been far from nice. "Yeah, I'm glad you two are okay..." she responded after a second, brushing some hair off of Luke's back. "Should've gotten a towel or something..." she muttered under her breath.

Luke's hearing was good enough to hear it, and he gestured over his shoulder, a small flame appearing over one of the drawers in his kitchen. "There should be some towels in there, if I remember rightly," he advised, eager to be of service to her. He sat for a second in thought before responding. "To be perfectly honest, when I felt Nathan's Flow earlier I was kinda scared, so it's a relief more than anything."

Kira walked over to the drawer, pulling out a towel. "Mmhm...the only reason I showed up was because I wanted to make sure if Nathan was going crazy again before I got out of Dodge," she explained as she covered Luke's back with the towel. "I didn't feel your Flow until I was closer, and even then I th-thought I was hallucinating..." She shook her head, finishing up Luke's hair and ruffling it in an attempt to get all the clippings loose.

"You might wanna shower or something while I clean up," she laughed, having made a bit of a mess.

"Oh you'll clean up? Sweet, thanks," he replied, scratching his head as he stood up. He shook slightly to try and get excess hair off him, and walked into the bathroom to take a look at it. After ensuring his satisfaction, he turned on the shower, letting it heat up for a second before he got in. He was much more tolerant of water those days, but he still didn't want to spend unnecessary time in it.

Kira smiled slightly as she located a dustpan, sweeping up the excess hair. Things almost felt like normal again, like they had before Tom fell. It was hard to imagine just slipping back into her normal routine easily, especially when she knew the life she missed wasn't that far off. Of course, it wasn't really...real. Whether she wanted to admit it or not, things had changed, and she wasn't even sure how long she could stay here without putting Luke at unnecessary risk. The people who seemed to follow her 24/7 would surely notice if she didn't come back out of the hotel ever.

Luke came out of the shower relatively quickly, emerging from the bathroom all dried after about half an hour. As he went to look for some clothes, he hummed, thinking about how nice it was to see Kira again. He'd spent quite a while wishing to be back with her, and it felt almost surreal for her to just appear in his apartment one day, with a garbled explanation. Not that he was complaining. He'd been waiting years to see her again.

Having cleaned up relatively quickly, Kira had returned to the living room- or what she classified as a living room- sitting back down on the couch and looking at a few of the pictures that Luke had scattered around the room. She vaguely wondered how he'd gotten them, not recalling missing any pictures, though then again, who knew. Maybe he'd managed to get his hands on one of the photo albums she put together before she hid them away.

Luke came out of his room after another couple of minutes, dressed pretty plainly in a red button-up shirt and jeans. He saw Kira looking at the pictures, and smiled, before wondering if she'd kept any after he was forced to run away. Probably not.

"They're just the pictures I had on my phone, plus that one of us as a team from when we were in the tournament. I kept my copy of that."

Kira jumped a little when Luke spoke up, not having noticed him come in the room. "I was wondering where they came from," she said, smiling up at Luke. "I thought I would have noticed pictures from around the apartment missing." Though maybe she wouldn't have, especially if someone had broken in the first few months after Luke had gone missing.

"It's nice, seeing them around. I...I locked mine away once Jason was born, d-didn't want him to think y-you were his dad or s-something..." she trailed off, laughing a bit nervously towards the end.